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October 12, 2013
"A strong academic bias against studying possible negative outcomes of empathy.
The left derives its sense of moral authority from the supposition that its intentions are altruistic and its opponents' are selfish.That sense of moral superiority makes it easy to justify immoral behavior, like slandering critics of President Obama as racist--or using the power of the Internal Revenue Service to suppress them. It seems entirely plausible that the Internal Revenue Service officials who targeted and harassed conservative groups thought they were doing their patriotic duty. If so, what a perfect example of pathological altruism. Pathological Altruism - WSJ.com
Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 12, 2013 5:55 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
"pathological altruism." Too fancy and abstract for this simple guy.
We are going to see a lot more of the Nuremburg Defense in the near future. Well-meaning workers, probably good citizens and so forth, obeying orders. They don't dare question their superiors and risk being fired. The assumption, faulty, is that management knows best. "Why, they would never order us to do something that wasn't right, would they?" Wanting to keep their jobs, working for that pension and keeping the medical insurance and any other perks, they just hunker down and process the forms.
Posted by: chasmatic at October 12, 2013 8:19 PM
Plus when you combine a basic ignorance of the fabric and order of reality with the presumption that truth and goodness are relative, then logic and truth are merely tools, not order that you must heed. In other words, they'll use logic and truth - or at least arguments which give the impression of being things - to win power, but not to do right. If truth and logic get in their way or counter what they wish to be true, they're discarded comfortably and easily.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at October 13, 2013 7:26 AM
You could see this syndrome written all over Lois Lerner's face at the Congressional hearing where she copped out.
Posted by: BillH at October 13, 2013 8:45 AM